NHL: Jets jump on Flyers in 2nd period, win 4-1

Philadelphia Flyers head coach Peter Laviolette yells to his players during the second period of their NHL game against the Winnipeg Jets in Winnipeg on Saturday, April 6, 2013. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, John Woods)

WINNIPEG, Manitoba — A big second period gave the Winnipeg Jets’ playoff hopes a sudden jolt that was desperately needed.

The Jets scored four times in less than seven minutes during the decisive second period and held off the Philadelphia Flyers for a 4-1 victory on Saturday that snapped Winnipeg’s five-game losing streak.

Evander Kane, Grant Clitsome, Kyle Wellwood and Bryan Little scored for the Jets, who dropped from first place in the Southeast Division to 10th in the Eastern Conference playoff race.

Ondrej Pavelec made 30 saves.

“We are woefully inconsistent,” Jets coach Claude Noel said.

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Ruslan Fedotenko scored for the Flyers, whose four-game winning streak ended. Philadelphia is also on the outside of the postseason chase with only a few weeks left in the regular season.

“They played like they wanted it the last 40 minutes,” Flyers forward Scott Hartnell said. “The last four games we played 60 minutes and tonight we didn’t.”

Before they started their slide in late March, the Jets (19-19-2) were in control in the Southeast. Now they hope to just get into the tournament.

“Our top players have to be hot and get our team going, and I thought we did a good job of that,” said Kane, who had a goal and an assist. “We had to win this game to give ourselves a shot to even make the playoffs. Our season is on the line right now.”

“I just think we shut it down for the second period,” Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds said. “It wasn’t the defense, it wasn’t the goaltending, it was everybody.”

Fedotenko’s long wrist shot from near the blue line beat Pavelec’s glove just past the 11-minute mark of the first. The Jets didn’t get off a shot in the final 15 minutes of the period.

But Winnipeg rallied in the second as it pounded the Philadelphia net, tying the game when Little passed to Clitsome in close and he snapped the puck past Ilya Bryzgalov at 12:38.

Bryzgalov had no time to recover when Kane passed to Wellwood from behind the Philadelphia net, and he made it 2-1 with a quick wrister 27 seconds later.

It was Kane’s turn less than two minutes later when he buried a loose puck after Mike Santorelli was stopped on a wraparound. He earned his first point with the Jets on an assist. He was picked up on waivers on Wednesday.

Little capped things off when he took off on a breakaway and found the corner with less than a minute left in the period.

“That first one kind of gave us momentum and we were flying from there,” he said. “To get that fourth one, it was a bit of a cushion for us and I thought we did a good job protecting it.”

After Bryzgalov allowed four goals on 16 shots, the Flyers pulled him to start the third and put in backup Steve Mason. Mason made his debut since coming to Philadelphia on Wednesday at the trade deadline. He stopped all nine shots he faced.

“It’s funny, but when you focus on the team game and you focus on the accomplishment of winning, how the scoring looks after itself, and the individual scoring takes care of itself,” Noel said.